Red geraniums, mailbox, bike and tunnel scenes

 I genuinely had fun painting this one, it was complex and took some time, every part of it was kind of neat. The umbrella needed to have delicate white shades against an otherwise grey and green background. These patio sets, which are all around Dorchester square downtown, are a pale emerald green. In the background you see the large bed of bright red geraniums which I captured with a mix of pyrol orange (PO73) and pyrol red (PR254). To get the colours this bright, I used a clean brush and made sure the paint was rinsed a bit on the palette to get full chroma. As I filled in the red and green foliage between the patio set, the whole scene popped, and the umbrella jumped off the page like an impressionist painting. 

White umbrealla red geranium bed, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

From the Maisonneuve bike path, Peel is a narrow one way going north, so you have to go down an adjacent street such as Metcalf. This mailbox was right on the corner of Maisonneuve and Metcalf, you see pat of the bike path in the background. I mainly painted this one because I needed to wait for the background of the next painting (the bike painting below) to dry. I also painted scooters parked in the city from this spot, looking south. 

Mailbox bike path Metcalf, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

I got the background down, let it dry while I painted the mailbox scene, then went back to this one and started the bike going from right to left. Coincidentally, the person who owns this bike came by, unlocked and took off before I could finish. So the back part I had to do by memory, and the wheel looks a little off, but you get the idea! 

Bicycle in shadow, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

From Metcalf, there is Dorchester square, then you can cross and get onto Peel which is two-way at that point, and has great wide bike paths on both sides. Peel street is perhaps the most "Montreal" that you can get, it goes all the way through the city, and connects down to the Peel basin. This is a sign for the underground tunnel entrance to highway 136. I've painted here before several times, including a large group of traffic signs.  Currently, the exit half of the highway is blocked off due to the huge construction project up on Peel and Notre Dame. 

Car skidding sign, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

Looking into the tunnel from the same spot, I painted a scene of eerie orange light illuminating cars as the descended into the abyss. Yellow signs decorate the entrance, which is made of classic Montreal concrete. I've done one here in the winter, and a similar scene featuring the huge glass building in the background. Its just a good place to stand, with a huge triangle of grass, and good sun. When the construction is finished, it will probably be less pleasant when the traffic returns. 

Underground tunnel orange, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026 

Peel Basin wild flowers, shadow, ripples

The bike path intermingles with cobblestone down at the Peel basin, Off to the side, there are a few benches and wild flowers growing in a large patch, with little plants sprouting up through the cobblestone. I used perylene maroon (PR179) with a touch of pyrol red (PR254) to get the basic colour of the stones. Brown protrusions, some type of decorative grass, were growing out of a large patch of Queen Anne's lace. The highway arching over the Peel basin is seen in the background. 

Cobble stones wild flowers, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

I was mainly standing here due to the shade from an adjacent train bridge. It was the end of my day of painting and I just stopped on this location for a few more before heading home. I will post the other ones from downtown after this blog. In this painting, I caught the shadow against warm concrete, the basin in the middle ground, and a grain silo in the background, covered in graffiti. 

Bridge shadow, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

Water rippled as it gently lapped against the old concrete basin walls. Once a big shipping/receiving port, now its a place of recreation and summer festivals. Not to mention a great place to paint! 

Ripples and fence, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

 

Scooters parked in the City

With scorching heat on the menu, we enjoy these cool breezy conditions on a perfect summer's day. I made another ten paintings today, including this one of three scooters parked on Metcalf street in the city. It took some time to work up the outlines with a number 2 paintbrush, then I filled in the washes for the scooters, and the various background elements. A bus went by in the background, and cars were streaming by, heading down the street. The scene was composed with a triangle on the bottom right, followed by an angular background framing the subject matter. After looking back on my old London Ontario paintings recently, I was inspired by the amount of detail on those paintings done 20 years ago. So today I was trying to go for more detail, and was pleased with the results. 

Scooters parked in the City, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, July 2026

Metro Papineau scenes

Reeling off another set of paintings at Metro Papineau, I made the most of realtively mild summer weather. Later this week its gonna be a schorcher! This one shows a nice flower bed behind a bench, and part of the metro and adjacent outdoor flower store in the background. 

Papineau metro bench flower bed, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

Another scene of the flower shop, with the city and a round-glass bulb lamp in the background. I liked the composition, where solid heavy buildings seem to be floating on delicate flowers. 

City flower shop, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

You don't see these very often anymore, a public telephone. Nobody was using it incidentally. I painted it to look like a robot, maybe its a Dr. Who character invading an alternative reality Earth? Metro grocery store in the background has a P instead of an M. 

Public telephone, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

Finally, a scene of the Cartier bridge soaring over a big condo building. You can see bikes and cars going past on the bridge which is neat. I sometime ride up there and make paintings, will do later int he summer if I get the chance. I did a lot of paintings today, 14 I think, which was neat. Lately I was listening to the late American punk band called the Ramones. Their songs were like 2 minutes long and very simple. Kind of like my location art, maybe I can call these punk paintings? 

Bridge over condos, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026 

Scenes around Jacques Cartier bridge

This billboard in the U-Haul rent a van parking lot had nothing on it, but I embellished my own initials and year. In the lower right you can see part of the amusement park called La Ronde. It was a tricky painting to do because of all the odd angles, and I was looking up. 

Billboard cartier bridge looking up, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

 A couple of grassy areas separate two access highways, there are pine tree and deciduous trees here, providing good shade. In the background you can see glimpses of the old Molson's brewery, now defunct. 

Trees grass near Cartier bridge, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

The tall brick and stone support beam had interesting colours and patterns. I painted this from near the U-Haul parking lot. It was a good location albeit kind of noisy. Being Saturday, there was probably less traffic than usual. 

Support Cartier bridge, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

This truck went by really fast and I tried to paint it from memory. It might have been a gas truck or a milk truck. Better yet, maybe it was a beer truck. 

Metal cyliner truck, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

Turning to face the U-Haul parking lot, here is a scene with a few of the trucks and the massive storage building in the background. Part of Molson's sign can be seen in the upper right. 

U-Haul parking lot, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

Shifting over to the east a little bit, under the shadow of the Cartier bridge, I made this painting looking west with a view of the old CBC radio tower building. This is also where st Catherine's and Notre Dame avenue converge. 

CBC building converging highways, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

Better turn left here! I liked the arrangement of the warning signs, and how the Cartier bridge cut an angle across the sky. Making the traffic light green matched the overall colour scheme. 

Warning signs under Cartier bridge, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

Same location looking east into the train yard, it has 7 tracks but I only fit 5 into this small painting. Train cars in orange, maroon and blue were stacked along the tracks. Another billboard had my initials on it., what a coincidence. 

Curving tracks, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

Same location looking west, with a view of the tracks, train cars, and st Lawrence river in the middle. In the distance is probably Victoria bridge. As I painted a lot today, the sky was getting greener and rougher. I had spare brushes that were clean but was not thinking much. 

River and train cars, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026 

 

Dépanneur Elephant ferme

Down in the old Shaughnessy village there is a dépanneur called Elephant, its been closed for good now. The adjacent building is also shuttered and boarded up, looking like a new development waiting to happen. Its called gentrification, when the old neighborhoods get upgraded to glass condos and hipster cafes. I stood really close to the storefront, on the sidewalk looking at an angle. Cars kept going into the alleyway near where I was standing, there must have been something really good in that alley but I didn't explore further. 

Dépanneur  Elephant ferme, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

 

 

Looking back, London Ontario flowers, trees, smoke stack

Here are more from the old collection of London Ontario done sometime between 1998 and 2004. These were probably later, since I steadily improved over this time period. In this example, some purple flowers grew in an old fashioned tiled planter. If I could go back in time and give myself a tube of quinacridone purple (PV55) it would have been great to use. I probably mixed french ultramarine (PB28) with alizarian crimson (PR83), or maybe qunacridone rose (PV19). 

Tiled planter purple flowers, watercolour 5 x 7", 200x

Near Saugeen Maitland residence, I know the exact location, here is a detailed painting of a White flower tree (probably Magnolia), and a red flowering bed. Looking back, I am impressed and inspired with the amount of detail I got into these small paintings. it must have taken some time, and required small brushes. I see side-drag texturing on the asphalt, and overpainting of the grass texture just like I do today. 

White flower tree red flower bed, watercolour 5 x 7", 200x

The University of Western was building lots of new residence buildings back then, this was a construction dumpster on campus. My love of painting garbage bins and dumpsters goes way back. In fact, I have a few such paintings from 1995/96 by first season painting outdoors. I will try to dig those ones up from the archive. 

Turquoise dumpster, watercolour 5 x 7", 200x

Also on University of Western campus, this rock had a detailed pattern chiseled into its surface. I managed to capture the bluish shadows, against a lime-green background. Notice the blue pine tree in the background upper right, it seems to be the correct shade. 

Rock sculpture, watercolour 5 x 7", 200x

 

Another highliy detailed painting, I compsed the red-orange liles against a dark green background, with a streak of light going across the lawn. Some pylons lay on their side to left. Bismuth vanadate yellow (PY184) would have been excellent for this painting, and pyrol orange (PO73). I really took on a tough subject here. 

Red lilies close up, watercolour 5 x 7", 200x 

One of the many campus buildings, with its limestone facade, illuminated by a setting sun. It was a neat composition, to cut the scene high like this, and focus on the light/shadow effect. Maybe I should give myself more credit for this period of painting in my life. Now that I make th blog it helps see everything in context. 

Sunset top of building, watercolour 5 x 7", 200x

Lastly, a delicate painting of a plume of smoke coming from the top of a building, probably steam coming out of an autoclave oven in the science building. The sun was setting which created an interesting orange halo around the dense plume. Its a tough effect to pull off, in fact I tried something like this last year, although in the winter. Maybe if I go out painting tomorrow which seems likely since its Saturday I can take on some more challenging scenes like this, of course, every painting is a challenge!

Sunset plume of smoke, watercolour 5 x 7", 200x